


Two Queens and Two Dragons

by rhye



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-28
Updated: 2019-01-28
Packaged: 2019-10-18 11:50:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17580278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhye/pseuds/rhye
Summary: Two armies clash-- one controlled by Daenerys and Drogon, the other by the Night King and un-dead Viserion. At least that's what anyone outside Winterfell would think. Luckily for Jaime and Brienne, they are inside Winterfell, so they know better.





	Two Queens and Two Dragons

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FreakTheMighty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FreakTheMighty/gifts).



NOW - JAIME

The field of fire and ice and death spread out below them as Jaime and Brienne watched from their tower on high. The war had been building towards this for days. He and Brienne had played their part in assuring this end. And somehow it still caught Jaime off guard. He tore his gaze from the sight below to see Brienne, her lips parted breathlessly, her nose and cheeks pink from the cold. She turned towards him. Her eyes were wide and her face expressionless aside from her labored breathing. Jaime nodded, unsure what emotions might be playing over his face. The field of desolation below made him felt lighter than he had in ages. He had done this for Brienne. For them. They had a future now, and so, so many possibilities.

***

BEFORE - JAIME

At first, it had seemed that the ice dragon-- the Dragon Queen said its name had been Viserion-- was simply attacking the larger threat. It, and the army of the dead, ignored Winterfell. Both swept down on Drogon and Daenerys with a ferocity Jaime had not expected from dead men. At first, Jon Snow had brought the full power of Winterfell to aid the Dragon Queen. They had fought for days against the dragon and its army and the ghostly king that commanded them. They took turns, coming in to eat watery broth, see their wounds bandaged, and sleep fitfully for a few hours. Jaime stayed close by Brienne’s side. He had no other reason for being here. If she died, he would not fight on. He knew that. He was tired of fighting. Once, it was all he had ever dreamed of. But he didn’t fight for Winterfell or humanity or any of the things he ought to care about. He fought for his future, and if that didn’t include her, he didn’t want it.

By the end of the fourth day, a pattern was slowly emerging. They fought on for another day before anyone spoke it aloud. Daenerys’ Dothraki and Unsullied were being hewn down like wheat at the end of summer, but the infirmary within Winterfell saw nothing more than scrapes and bruises. No one who slept within the walls of Winterfell had died. But the Dragon Queen’s army was decimated. She had refused to sleep within Winterfell since Jaime’s arrival, awaiting his head. Queen Daenerys and Sansa Stark had been pulling Jon Snow between them, a rope that threatened to snap back on him whichever way he decided.

Jaime was there when he _did_ decide. Sam-- no ally of Daenerys’-- was the first to speak loudly what they had all whispered. He said, “If you want her to survive another night, you’ll have to get her to stay within the walls of Winterfell.” Something about the castle was protecting those who slept inside.

Jon Snow’s eyes had flickered to Jaime. Jaime held his breath and waited to hear Snow call for a block. If Jaime was dead, Daenerys would quit her tantrum.

Instead, Snow’s eyes flickered past him to Sansa, and he said, “Make it known to the Queen that she and her men are welcome in Winterfell, but we won’t be breaking guest rights or tolerating it of others.”

She did not come to Winterfell after that. Queen Daenerys was all pride and stubbornness, and she would not relent. No one thought she would last the night.

Over their stew, Brienne whispered, “Why doesn’t she just come inside the gates?”

“Come now, you were as stubborn as her, once.”

“She is asking House Stark to break its oaths. I was never like her. King John loves her, but even he will not break an oath for her.”

“Then he must not love her much,” Jaime whispered.

Brienne looked shocked and affronted.

“Oh come on,” Jaime groaned. “When you love someone, oaths don’t matter. Honor is shit. Family is meaningless. All of life condenses to one thing-- one person.” He grinned at her, and hoped his smile was sharp enough to bite her.

“You should know,” she muttered. “You broke enough oaths for your sister.”

Jaime felt stung. “I also broke oaths for _you_ , but you don’t complain about those, I notice.”

Her mouth opened, but closed again. She apparently had no argument to that.

Jaime pointed to the high table, where Sansa sat like an ice statue next to a harried-looking King Snow. No one called him that. Everyone said “King Jon” and even “Good King Jon”, but Jaime loved it. King Snow, and all it said and meant and implied and didn’t say.

“When is the last time you saw Brandon Stark?” Jaime asked, suddenly unable to recall.

Brienne’s eyes moved to the high table. “I’m sure he eats with a different shift.”

 _If he eats_.

Jaime stood. Brienne was confused, but to her credit she didn’t ask questions. She swallowed the rest of her broth and rose to follow him, wherever he was going. He turned and left the Great Hall. Brienne, gods by good, trusted him enough to follow.

“We’ll get in trouble if we get caught,” Jaime said once they were well away from the crowd in the hall.

“We won’t,” Brienne said.

“They might use any excuse to kill me.”

“Not if you’re right,” she said.

“Right about what?”

“Jaime--”

He stopped and looked at her. She looked so confident, almost arrogant.

“Where do you think we are going?, ” he asked of her.

“If…” her voice wavered. “Bran Stark can control animals and he hasn’t been seen--”

He stopped her lips with a kiss. She gasped. Quietly, he whispered against her check “Surely you know it is treason to speak such.”

“The Queen has no men here.”

“House Stark is sworn to her. All of the men here are hers.”

“We fight for House Stark. I am sworn to Sansa Stark. We have already seen that House Stark will not give guests over to the Dragon Queen.”

‘We have already seen’. She was speaking so cavalierly of his continued life. But he could not deny the truth of her words.

“Fine, let’s have it. Speak.”

“You think Bran Stark is controlling the ice dragon.”

“No,” he said slowly, “I think Stark is controlling the Night King, who is controlling the dragon in turn.”

“Why would he attack Daenerys?”

“That is precisely what I intend to find out.”

*****

BRIENNE

There were no guards at Lord Stark’s chambers, and once Jaime knocked, Brienne understood why. Within the rooms stood Arya Stark, who held a knife to Jaime’s throat.

“What do you want, _Kingslayer_?” Arya sneered. Brienne gritted her teeth. The name always set her on edge.

“I merely wanted to greet your brother. Is politeness so dead?”

“You tell me. What does Olenna Tyrell say of politeness these days?”

Brienne watched Jaime’s eyes cloud over in that way they did whenever some past sin of his was mentioned. She made a note. She did not know if she wanted to ask about the Tyrell matriarch or avoid the subject, but either way she liked to map these hidden traps.

Jaime and Arya were glaring at each other, so Brienne interceded. “You would not kill Sir Jaime, because you need him alive.”

“Why?” Arya mocked. “We don’t need him to command the armies. If you can’t see, they’re doing fine. Sansa may care about guest rights, but I a can make it look like he attacked Bran.”

“If you wanted him dead, he would already be dead,” Brienne said. “You don’t hesitate.”

Arya’s eyes glittered with something that might have been pride, and she lowered the knife.

“I also know why you need him alive,” Brienne said.

Arya’s eyebrow invited more.

“You need the Dragon Queen to stay outside the castle.”

Jaime jumped in then. “Your brother wants to keep her in the open field for the slaughter.”

Arya didn’t flinch at the raw language, but she did open the door wider and allow them in. Bran sat in his wheeled chair, covered in blankets, gaunt and unmoving. His eyes were sightless white orbs. Samwell Tarly looked up for a moment, but then continued dribbling broth into Stark’s gaping mouth and wiping his forehead of sweat. It seemed the effort was taking something out of the boy.

“All I want to know,” Brienne said, “is whether Lady Sansa knows.”

Arya laughed sharply. “It was her idea.”

Brienne nodded.

“He’s her dragon, now,” Jaime whispered. “Two queens and two dragons. How symmetric.”

“Tonight,” Bran Stark spoke impossibly.

Jaime nodded and dragged Brienne from the room.

“What--?” She asked.

“I have to save my little brother,” Jaime said.

Brienne didn’t question it. Tyrion Lannister remained loyal to Queen Daenerys-- and completely drunk in her dwindling camp. He seemed hell-bent on self-destruction, from what little Brienne had seen of him. Brienne suspected that the youngest Lannister was afraid to defect, and equally afraid that his Queen would get what she wanted most-- the head of the elder Lannister.

They dressed in their armor plate side by side in their now-shared room. Brienne helped Jaime with the brigandine straps and the gauntlets, noting that there was no more sign of the hurt pride he had evidenced the first time he had asked her for help. The battle still raged outside the wall, but Winterfell had called its soldiers back. It was naked revolution against the Dragon Queen. Brienne suspected King Jon was also aware Sansa Stark’s plan, of Bran Stark’s tight timeline. Jaime, it seemed, had been right. King Jon did not love the Dragon Queen, but was eager to see her break against her own undead dragon.

“If they catch us, they will kill us,” Brienne said of the remaining Unsullied and Dothraki warriors.

“Only if the dragon doesn’t beat them to it,” Jaime said, winking at her.

She knew what he didn’t have to say. He would not force her to leave the safety of the castle behind for his brother. She also knew he would not be the man she loved if he were not so fearless when saving those he cared about. She admired it. She swallowed her own nerves and smiled. “Luckily, you are with the best knight in the Seven Kingdoms. I won’t let any harm come to you.”

“My hero,” Jaime scoffed.

*****

NOW - JAIME

Jaime and Brienne were in the retinue of commanders that followed King Jon down from Winterfell’s Wall. The field beyond was alive with dancing blue and red fire, and the Dothraki and Unsullied were dead to a man, raised into a fiercer army than they had been in life, before being returned to death by the flame of the third, surviving dragon: Rhaegal. Tyrion was safe in a cell. Not ideal, but at least he was alive.

Queen Daenerys and the Night King had burned each other and each other’s dragons in the night. The green dragon named for the prince Jaime had once served sat, folded calmly within the walls of Winterfell as King Snow climbed atop.

No, not Snow. At day break, Bran Stark and Samwell Tarly and Jon Snow had held a council and told them what they knew of Jon’s parentage. It ought to have been a surprise to Jaime, but it wasn’t. Jon and Sansa announced a betrothal to bind Stark and Targaryen at last, and then Jon had asked their help surveying the field. There had appeared to be no one left alive, but Jon and his dragon were riding out to make certain that was the case.

Jaime guessed King Snow would soon be taking his dragon south, to the last queen standing between Winterfell and the Iron Throne-- Cersei. Jaime wondered what might be asked of him, but even as he stood in the courtyard and watched the dragon fly away, he was surprised by a voice at his shoulder. Sansa Stark.

“My betrothed, King Jon Targaryen, has asked for your leadership in our campaign to the south.”

“Your grace, I--”

She cut him off with a smirk. “Not to worry. I explained to him of your wife’s tender condition, and on the merit of the service you have done here at Winterfell, he has dismissed you from that duty.”

Brienne stepped forward, head bowed. “Your grace--”

“Condition?” Jaime asked.

Sansa grinned wolfishly.

Jaime turned to Brienne. Her face was red, and he knew from experience the color ran all the way down to her toes. “I meant to tell you,” she whispered, “but I was afraid you would keep me from the fighting.”

“Why?” he said. “Surely the best knight in the Seven Kingdoms doesn’t think I’d worry for her safety?”

Brienne hit Jaime playfully and walked away. He followed, hoping they were leaving to pack. Their part in the war was over. Jaime was going home to Tarth and his future.


End file.
